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AWARE2 – the 50-gigapixel digital camera

US engineers have combined 98 cameras to create one 50,000-megapixel camera to rule them all

21 June 2012/17:43BST

Think your 24.3-megapixel Sony A77 has an impressive sensor? Well, think again – because US engineers have built a prototype camera with 2,000 times as many megapixels.

Dubbed the AWARE2, it can take images with a resolution of 50 gigapixels (or 50,000 megapixels). It does so by combining 98 tiny cameras and merging the information they capture into a single, insanely detailed image.

Created by a team at the University of Arizona and partially funded by Darpa (a US government department responsible for developing advanced tech for defence), AWARE2 will probably find itself used for military surveillance. Despite the small size of its component cameras, the device measures up at 20 inches in depth, and 2.5 feet square. So you won’t be slipping it into your pocket anytime soon.

However, the creators believe that the tech could be miniaturised within five years – at which time we could be measuring our pocket consumer camera sensors in gigapixels rather than megapixels.